Memory voltage

[BiPolar]

How safe is it to run my Kingston valueram pc3200 at 2.8v?

 

[BlueWeasel]

I'd say you're fine at that voltage. I've been running my Kingston PC3200 and Mushkin PC2700 at about 2.77v (that's what my 8RDA defaults to) for almost 18 months now with no problems.

I've heard of people running the RAM at voltages higher than 2.8v for stability at a higher FSB.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: BiPolar
How safe is it to run my Kingston valueram pc3200 at 2.8v?

Hah, is that what it takes to run that crappy ram at 200 mhz?

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: BiPolar
How safe is it to run my Kingston valueram pc3200 at 2.8v?

Hah, is that what it takes to run that crappy ram at 200 mhz?

I didn't see BiPolar say anything specifically about 200MHz. But, if 2.8v gets him 200MHz stable, sounds like he was very smart to save a bunch of money. If someone is gonna run DDR 210-220+MHz on a 1/1 ratio on an AMD rig, then extra bucks spent on memory is worth it. If you just need to hit 200MHz stable, then the smart person would buy the cheapest ram that runs at decent timings at the speed needed. Is your fsb speed taking advantage of your ram myocardia?

Now to give a helpful answer to the original post, 2.8v should be "safe". Although I have noticed lately that many sticks of so called lower quality PC3200/PC3500 actually seem to run higher fsb speeds at lower voltages, 2.5-2.6v. Also slightly relaxed memory timings at a higher fsb usually gives better performance.

 

[BiPolar]

Thanks guys, both of youare right, though. It is crappy ram, and tht is what it took to run stable at 200. I would love to go higher, but i don't htink it's gonna happen. My timings are at 3:4:4:11, but I was going to start tightening them up to see how I could do. Should I leave as is, or try to tighten 'em up a little?

 

[rogue1979]

Go ahead and tighten them up some, just remember it is easy to corrupt you Windows installation by pushing the memory too far.

 

[BiPolar]

Yep, I backup regularly and have my windows partition separate from my data files. So, hopefully if things go bad, I"ll be able to recover quickly.

 

[Tuvoc]

New here and just seen this thread.
I use memtest86 off a floppy to avoid going anywhere near my windows installation while I am testing timings etc

Back to the original question
I have TWINMOS memory, again it is cheap stuff but it does surprisingly well. It is currently sititng at 2.65v, 214FSB, 8-3-3-2.5 on my ASUS P4P800 SE.

It will do 220 FSB memtest error free at 2.75v - but again, my question is: how "safe" is this ? Given that I tend to run my primary rig for about 2 yrs before upgrading, and then it becomes a second rig for family use for another 2-3 yrs or so. So unlike most here, my definition of "safe" is that it must last up to 5 yrs.

So - given the above - is 2.75v wise ??